1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems for purchase and bill payment transactions and transferring of electronic cash and also terminal-to-terminal wireless transmission of the required data without using modem.
2. Description of the Related Art
The WO96/04618 publication has disclosed a terminal which can perform purchase payment and bill transactions via a modem coupled to or integrated into the terminal. The whole system provided in above publication is a modem-based system where the user's credit card information and the terminal's serial number are sent to a host computer for validating which after authorization by card issuing authority and a host computer the user is given the right for remote purchases. In its portable form the terminal also uses modem which is coupled through the telephone circuit to a transmitter/receiver. The portable terminal is not a wireless/cellular terminal so it does not exploit the wireless messaging for direct communication but the terminal is by means of a modem and circuit-switched call connected to a host computer and the payment procedure is performed during the established call. Moreover, in the above system transaction requests are connected to the remote host system through telephone line and the system is based only on circuit-switched communications whereby the credit card validation is performed during an established continues call. Furthermore the above-like systems does not utilize electronic cash for purchase or bill transactions.
The GB2276258 publication disclose a system for utilizing credit information to verify and accept payment for an order on site at the door of a home contemporaneously by means of credit card. The above system is also a modem-based system and is based on circuit-switched communications neither messaging means of wireless communication for purchase and payment transactions. Neither the above system uses electronic money for payment transactions. In all already known methods the user establishes a circuit-switched call for performing transaction during the established call.
In the above-like systems the communication speed is low because of using modems or data cards which also makes the terminals more expensive. The communication is also expensive for the user because of the circuit-switched calls and the user, in some cases, is also required to purchase a separate terminal for his purchases or bill payment transactions. Furthermore the user's credit information (credit card number) communication over the open networks is not secured. In all existing systems it is the customer whose credit card number is taken by the service provider for charging the customer whereas in a secure payment system the customer is not required to give any credit information to the third parties. There continues to exist a need to further improve the efficiencies of the payment systems.